iL Lido, Italian Dining & Lounge Bar – one of KL’s best Italian fine dining restaurant

Italian restaurants in KL are a dime a dozen. Malaysian have somewhat developed a penchat for Italian food; hence the flourishing of Italian food purveyors. And oh, you do not want to get me started on Japanese.

Every eatery now boasted of a pasta section, with marinara & carbonara being prominent items. Boil some pasta, slather some sauce on top, toss in some ingredients, plonk it down at your table.

Here, ‘mam. Your pasta.’

Oh no. I’m not gonna eat that.

Thus the blast of fresh air to the Italian dining scene with the debut of Singapore’s iconic Italian restaurant and lounge bar, il Lido here in the heart of KL. And I though Favola (post HERE) was good. Heck, Italian fine dining just got better 😉

il lido kl

iL Lido is the newest destination for the savvy epicureans in Malaysia. It’s repertoire of traditional Italian food, with non – mediocre methods of preparation & brilliant selection of homemade pastas certainly made a trip here worth the effort.

An extensive walk-in wine cellar featuring the best in Old World and New World wine, premium beers and cocktails plus a rooftop alfresco & gourmet bar is sure to satisfy.

It’s hard to make a mistake but be sure to order the more uncommon items as prices are at a premium here.

Be prepared also to lapse into a carb-coma as you mustn’t miss ordering their unique array of fresh homemade pastas.

I went for the Orecchiette with lamb ragout, fava beans & pecorino cheese as it has all my favourite ingredients – lamb, fava bean & pecorino cheese. Another reason was simply cos I have never tried Orecchiette before.

iL Lido - orecchiette with lamb ragout

Orecchiette turned out to be cute ear shaped pastas. Mayhap not the best choice as the pasta stuck together thus was under-cooked & gave the jaw unnecessary exercise for the amount I paid.

I wasn’t too happy & voiced my concerns to the manager. Anyhow, the gravy was rich & flavourful & the lamb was utterly delicious.

il lido KL - orecchiette

My friend took the lunch set, which is pretty value for money considering the courses.

il lido KL - set lunch

The amuse bouche of tuna with aged balsamic vinegar was meaty and lightly seasoned. Both of us slurped up every bit of the soup , which was robust with the clean flavours of the vegetables shining through :good: .

Done perfectly medium, the gamey beef cheeks were fork tender & my friend pronounced it satisfactory. Dessert sadly, was a dismal affair as the dessert platter was simply boring.

il lido KL - amuse bouche

il lido KL - soup

il lido kl - beef cheeks

il lido kl - beef cheeks 1

il Lido - dessert

Coincidentally, I was there for lunch again the very next day since another friend wanted to try the place. Lunch is always good for carbs, as I reasoned that the calories would somewhat be worked off over the course of the day.

My friend went for the degustation set (RM180), and he generously shared some of the items with me.

Oh, as with every Italian restaurant, complimentary bread (in this case foccacia) is served. Nothing remarkable, hence Favola still holds the torch for the best complimentary bread.

il lido KL - complimentary

Unfortunately I arrived late, and only sampled his degustation menu items from the 4th course onwards. The Spanish Suckling Pig with plum sauce was uniquely dissimilar from the Chinese & Spanish versions that I was accustomised to, though it’s named “Spanish suckling pig..”. I thought it was a bit bland in taste but I’m still glad that iL Lido is non-halal, since most good Italian joints in KL is, & hence there is opportunity to sample Italian-ised pork dishes.

il Lido - Suckling Pig

As you may recall, I was dissatisfied from my Orecchiette with lamb ragout, fava beans & pecorino cheese during lunch yesterday. Today, the manager sent over a complimentary similar pasta dish, but replacing the Orecchiette with Gnocchi. Apparently they agreed that the Orecchiette is better replaced due to its tendency to stick together, and the cause of that was the flour that was used to produce it.

“We take feedback seriously”, the manager assured me & prodded me to try the gnocchi.

Well, I’m happy to report that the gnocchi was beautiful! Soft & pillowy in texture, it did the most fabulous job of soaking up the wondrous gravy. This is easily one of my favourite dish in iL Lido now.

iL Lido - gnocchi with lamb ragout

Another personal recommendation is the Pappardelle with goose liver, duck confit & truffle sauce. RM59.
The clever combination of foie gras, duck confit & truffles elevates this dish to one that is simply decadent.

il lido KL - papardelle foie gras

Black truffles. These are 40Euro per 100g.

il lido kl - truffle

Ricotta cheese are more common in savoury dishes & certainly not so in sweets. Thus there was an air of curiousity between both of us on how a ricotta cheese cake would turn out.

Well, all our anxiety was dispelled after a bite of this heavenly smooth, creamy creation. A pleasant dessert that gave a twist to the otherwise common cheese cakes, this certainly made up for boring dessert platter the day before! 😉

il lido KL - ricotta cheese cake

Undeniably, there are many Italian restaurants in KL. But I would recommend iL Lido as the place for more uncommon pastas & I love the brilliant twist & use of uncommon (sometimes luxurious) ingredients in most of it’s dishes. It is also one where the dishes is meticulously & carefully prepared, which was apparent in the taste & presentation of the dishes I’ve tried.
Be prepared to pay for what you get of course.


illido_kl_map

Il Lido,
Jalan Mayang, Off Jalan Yap Kwan Seng, Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 2161-2291
Opening hours:
Mon – Fri 12 – 230pm
Mon – Sat 630 – 1030pm
Bar – Mon – Sat 5pm – 1 am
Close on Sundays.

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. Sean

    They’ve been getting really good reviews in newspapers and magazines over the last few weeks too! Nice to see their efforts are making ppl happy!

  2. lotsofcravings

    have they increase prices already? i remember i had the same pasta for rm69 and they didnt give me foie gras! obviously too late to complain and by then i was obviously too cheesed off by their waiter who couldnt wait to make us order alcohol that we had to pay for.

  3. Michelle Chin

    Orecchiette with lamb ragout, fava beans & pecorino cheese! WOW.

    Seriously, I think KL’s dining scene is improving by triple fold or something because three years ago, it was so not like this!

Comments are closed.

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